Wooo—
A sound like the wailing of ghosts and gods rose from the crown of the Xuanhuang Wood. Chaotic gusts slipped between its branches, wild and disorderly, and swept around the Magic Array. The little red grasses surged like waves, pale flames leaping among them. As these images intertwined, faint sighs and indistinct voices drifted through the void. Yet, like scenery deep within the clouds, they were elusive and shifting. No one could tell where they came from, or even be sure they really were voices.
The rules had responded to the Ritual Array.
They had manifested.
The young wizards chatting around the Magic Array all fell silent, even holding their breath. The shriveled corpse lying at its center instantly drew its consciousness into a single point, becoming a genuine corpse.
Dylan had fallen asleep.
Books said that sleep was a brief death. That was true, but with one proviso: for ordinary wizards, sleep was a brief death. For undead creatures, sleep was actual death.
Of course, Dylan had employed a few little tricks in the process.
They kept him from truly "sleeping himself to death" and accidentally sleeping for decades or even centuries.
"Present the offerings!"
Xiao Xiao called out softly, took a copper platter from inside his robes, and held it before him.
Fatty Xin promptly produced five small white porcelain bowls.
He arranged them in a row.
And set them beside the Magic Array.
The bowls contained the flesh and blood of five sacrificial animals: Père David's deer—the Four Unlike—deer, water deer, wolf, and rabbit. In the entire Xuanhuang Small World, perhaps only Fatty Xin could produce offerings of all five animals anytime, anywhere.
Holding the copper platter, Xiao Xiao circled the Magic Array. With three fingers, he pinched up ashes from the platter and scattered them,